The Homerunners

It was a sunny day in the summer of 1985, the sun was out and no clouds in the sky. In the town of Salt Lake City, there laid a diamond baseball field. And in that field, played a team called the “Homerunners”. It was a team of nine players, each going by their middle name in the team. Asher “Turbo” Mineron was the leader of the team at the oldest, going by his middle name. He went by Turbo, after all, he was the pitcher of the team. The best really, always threw the best balls someone could never throw. The Homerunners were known as the best baseball team in the whole town, they never lost a game for two years straight. At first they started small, but they got better than anyone would think they would have. Especially for the youngest, Rose’s little brother, Theo. He was about three years old when he started playing. He was known for wanting to be like his older sister, Rose. But he was also an early borner, so he was smaller than the normal five year old. Nobody thought he was going to be able to even lift a bat or a baseball.

After the bell rang for the schools on a Friday. They all rushed out the school to go home, grab their equipment, and head to the field as Rose picked up her brother on the way. The Homerunners were always known for heading the field every weekend, every Friday after school. Now, Rose waited outside of the school with her hands in her pockets as Theo went through the big glass doors. Rose was always know as the short-tempered member of the group. Not to mention she was the toughest of the team. That’s why she was put as the third catcher in the team to catch those quick hard, balls even Turbo couldn’t even catch. She was the tallest and the toughest, even though she wasn’t the oldest. She always wore baggy clothes with a jean jacket, but under it she had a fine built. Theo noticed Rose and smiled wide, waving at her with a big wave with his small arm. Yelling while running towards Rose. “Big sis! I’m so excited to play today!” Theo yelled, opening his arms for a hug.

Rose smirked a little with amusement and took her hands out of her pockets and knelt down. Opening her arms for the hug back, though she is tense because she was used to Theo clashing in a hug. “Bring it in, you goofball.” Rose said in her usual slick voice. Theo clashed into her arms, his arms not even wrapping around her sides. Rose wrapped her hands around his small form, her arms enveloping Theo. Theo chuckled with joy and happiness, he was always like this on a Friday after school. “I can’t wait to go play at the field!” Theo pulled back enough to see my face. “Come on, come on! Let’s go!” Theo said enthusiastically. Rose let him go and standed back up straight. Offering her hand out to walk with. “Well than, come on. Let’s go, we don’t want to waste anymore time than we already are.” Rose said, her eyes softer while looking at Theo. Theo squealed in happiness and wrapped his small hand around my two fingers. We started to walk away from the school to their houses to go grab their gloves. They were the ones who brought the gloves to the game to play.

Meanwhile, Turbo was racing to his house. His backpack thumping and swaying violently against his back as he ran. He ran with excitement and determination as he threw his hands up in the air, and yelled as loud that the whole town could hear. “IT’S FRIDAY! WHOOOO-HOOOO!” Yelled Turbo as he turned sharply down his street. Before reaching his house, he pulled his backpack in front of him and opened its front pocket and grabbed his house keys. He zipped back his backpack and unlocked the door. His parents were never home, rather out at work or at a bar. But Turbo never cared about that, he just cared about baseball. His team, a team who felt like a family to each other, and especially Turbo. He ran down the stairs to his room. He bursted into his room and plopped down his backpack beside his study desk. Turbo opened his closet doors with a creek it always made and grabbed his baseball bat and the baseball. He was always the one who brought the bat and ball. Of course, those were his grandfather's when he was young, or exactly alive.

Turbo’s bat had a carved initials of the famous baseballer Babe Ruth from back in the late 30s. His grandfather had this when it was gifted by his mother and his grandfather passed it down to Turbo’s Dad, and down top Turbo. It is pretty wore down, even though it was. His grandfather told Turbo to always play with it, no matter how wore down or how old it gets. He took a meaningful look at the bat before heading out again to the field. Each of the teammates brought different equipment for the games. Jelly and June always brought the hats and sunscreen all the time. James kept hold of each of everyone’s baseball suits for playing, even though Rose only putted it on when it was a competition game. Every other time, she just wore her usual clothes and jean jacket. Sammy took care of the drinks and snacks, even lunch sometimes when during Saturday or Sunday. While Eddie and and Jed brought the safety gear, they were the two who would be like the mother of the team. The ones who would make sure that nobody would get hurt in way, everybody but Rose did.

Turbo headed out his house door, locking the door behind him and heads to the field. With the bat under his armpit and the ball in the other hand. He walked down the street towards to where the others are. As walking, from afar, he sees the others already there, in their baseball suits. Except Rose as always, just leaning against the fence while passing a rock between a glove in one hand and the rock in the other. While the others practice around the base running, their baseball shoes thumping against the dirt. Turbo smiles brightly and jogs lightly over to Rose beside the fence. He called out while jogging over. “Hey, guy! You ready to play some ball?” Turbo called out. Jelly stopped running, but before he could even yell back, everyone who was running behind him crashed into him and fell over. All piling over Jelly like a stack of dominos. Rose chuckled from the fence at the sight, her hair done in a ponytail. Turbo laughed his head off at the sight, even having to drop the bat and the ball to clutch is stomach from laughter.

Everyone had their legs and arms tangled in the pile, even having Jelly yell out. “Can you get your asses off of me!? Your crushing me under here!” Jelly yelled with slight stain from the weight on him. Rose rolled her eyes in amusement and dropped the rock and the glove on the ground with the thud. Walking over to the pile of kids. “Alright, alright. You had your fun, now it’s time to play. Not slack off laying down.” Rose said, grabbing Theo who was on the top off, taking them off one by one. Finally, they all got off each other as Turbo also finally stopped laughing and walked over. “Jeez, seems someone got themselves in a bit of a pickle.” He said with a playful smirk. Jelly playfully glared up at him, brushing off the dirt and dust off his clothes. “Shut it, Turbo. You’re the one who distracted me!” Jelly said to Turbo. Before Turbo could make his comeback, Rose threw a rock at his head. “Come on, jetbrain! Let’s play the game already!” Rose yelled, already at her post in the field. Turbo yelped when the rock hit the side of his head, rubbing his head with his hand and grabbed the ball.

He grabbed the bat too and tossed it to Jed. Turbo took his place in the middle with his ball in his hand. Everyone spreaded out and took their places. Turbo took a deep breath, on exhaling, he made a quick sharp throw. Jed swinged the bat and hitted the ball square on, making the ball swing high over the fence. He dropped the bat and ran between the mats, making it a homerun. Rose kept an eye on her eye when seeing the ball fly over, seeing it went into the new neighbors yard. None of the Homerunners have seen or met the new neighbors yet. But Rose took off to the fence, she climbed and jumped over the fence. She landed on the ground with a thump and saw the ball next to the porch. As she walked to grab it, she saw a boy. Probably around sixteen years old with a couple more boys around his age inside. They didn’t look like siblings, and they were all wearing bright red custom baseball suits. With a tag name she never seen saying, “Quick-Shots” on their back, through the window. The boys looked rough and not nice or fellow at all.

As Rose reached out to grab the ball, she stepped on a stick, making a snapping crack. Some of the boys turned to the window at the sound, them stepping towards the window. Rose quickly grabbed the ball and hit under the porch. The boys looked out the window for a minute before going back inside. Rose exhaled in relief and crawled back out the porch. She sneaked past the window backed to the fence. She quietly climbed up it again and jumped the rest of it. She walked back to the others with the ball in hand. She threw the ball back to Jed, though her expression was conflicted with questions. But she pushed those thoughts back and continued to play the game. Hours went past as the sun was starting top set against the horizon. Turbo whipped his brow with his sleeve, panting but smiling with excitement. Rose took a drink of water, after taking a sip. She passed it to Turbo, “Here. You need your water.” She said with a gruff. Turbo smiled gratefully and took the water gently from her hand. “Thanks, Rose. I really do need a drink.” Turbo said, taking a drink.

Theo headed to the the public bathroom to go get changed out of his baseball suit. He came back out in his clothes from before the game and headed o Rose. “Okay, I am ready!” Said Theo with a tired smile. Rose offered her hand out again to walk home with. “Come on, legs let’s go home. You need to go to bed, it’s already past your bedtime.” Rose said, seeing as Theo takes her hand again. Turbo stretched tiredly with a yawn. “Well, i’ll see you guys tomorrow. We still have all weekend to play. So, i’ll see you two later.” Turbo said, his eyes filled with tiredness. “I’ll see you then, Turbo.” Rose said, walking off with Theo to down to their home street. The others started to head out back to their homes too. Turbo grabbed is ball and bat once again and headed back home. The stars started to show as the sun completely set over the mountains. Turbo started to head home down his street. His steps slurred slightly from tiredness and exhaustion as he walked. He arrived at his house, his parents’ cars still gone. He knew they would be at the bar like usual.

His parents were said not the greatest parents in the town. They would never be home to be with Turbo, ever. They would be at work or at the bar. The bar was always where they would go after work, and won’t get home until the crack of don. And still wouldn’t give a single second of time with Turbo, even if it was the weekend and they stayed home. They would always come up with an excuse they couldn’t give him their time, food, or even attention. They also cheat and lie to each other, there was no night they didn’t fight or even day. But the whole town still wonders why they don’t know they haven’t divorced yet. They can’t make the guess for the sake of Turbo. Because they didn’t and don’t care about him. They don’t care about his health or environment. They could have broken beers or glass from fighting, and make Turbo clean it up. Of course, there is worse parents out there, like Rose and Theo’s parents. Even though they never talk about them ever, everybody knows they are not good at all. So nobody knows about Rose’s family. Only Theo was the only one she’d say.